Marconi Society Announces Distinguished Program Committee for 2021 Symposium & Gala: The Decade of Digital Inclusion

The Marconi Society announced its program committee for the upcoming symposium and gala, the Decade of Digital Inclusion.

Members include leaders in technology, policy, and digital inclusion

Contact: Taia Pandolfi, Marketing & Communications Manager

taia@marconisociety.org

March 11, 2021—The Marconi Society today announced the committee for its upcoming symposium and gala, which celebrates 2020 Marconi Fellow Andrea Goldsmith and sets the agenda for the upcoming ten years of digital inclusion advocacy. The program committee includes leading technologists, policy advocates, and digital inclusion experts whose experience in the field and visionary leadership will shape this exceptional event.

The Decade of Digital Inclusion will bring together a cross-section of leaders from critical disciplines  in a collaborative, generative program to discuss the major barriers to delivering the opportunities of connectivity to everyone on the planet and solutions for the next decade,” said Vint Cerf, Chair of the Marconi Society and 1998 Marconi Fellow. “We are honored to work with this distinguished program committee, which represents the communal effort required to connect the next billion people.”

The gala and symposium takes place on Friday, October 22, 2021, at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., and will include a significant online presence for those unable to travel. The program committee is co-chaired by Cerf and Samantha Schartman-Cycyk, the Marconi Society’s Executive Director. The committee will focus on creating an engaging, impactful event that draws on the strengths of the technology, policy, and advocacy communities and presents new opportunities for collaboration.

The Decade of Digital Inclusion Program Committee

Mohamed-Slim Alouini
Distinguished Professor, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Mohamed-Slim Alouini is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at  King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). He is a Fellow of the IEEE and OSA and he is currently actively working on addressing the uneven global distribution, access to, and use of information and communication technologies in far-flung, low-density populations, low-income, and/or hard-to-reach areas.

Ana Garcia Armada
Professor, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Ana Garcia Armada is a professor of the Signal Theory and Communications Department at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, where she has served as Head of Signal Theory and Communications Department, Vice-dean of Electrical Engineering, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of International Relations. She has received awards from University Carlos III of Madrid, third place Bell Labs Prize 2014 and outstanding service award from the IEEE ComSoc Signal Processing and Communications Electronics technical committee and the IEEE ComSoc Women in Communications Engineering standing committee.

Jane Coffin
Senior Vice President, Internet Growth, Internet Society

Jane Coffin is responsible for the Internet Society’s Internet Growth project teams, which are focused on Community Networks, Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) & interconnection, peering, community development, and a new critical project on measuring the health of the Internet. Coffin is a longtime leader in Internet and telecommunications policy issues, with experience at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, USAID projects, FCC, and AT&T.

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Elza Erkip
Institute Professor, NYU Tandon School

Elza Erkip is an Institute Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at New York University Tandon School of Engineering. Her research interests are in information theory, communication theory, and wireless communications. Dr. Erkip is a member of the Science Academy of Turkey and is a Fellow of the IEEE. She was a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society 2012–2020, where she was the President in 2018.

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Edward Frank
CEO, Brilliant Lime; Vice Chair, Board of Trustees, Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Edward H. Frank is presently co-founder and CEO of Brilliant Lime, Inc., a very early-stage technology development startup. In 2018, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to the development and commercialization of wireless systems. Frank has been a Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University since 2000 and is currently a Vice Chair of its Board of Trustees. He presently is an advisor to several Bay Area Venture capital firms and startups.

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Chris Lewis
President and CEO, Public Knowledge

Chris Lewis is the President and CEO at Public Knowledge (PK), where he previously served as Vice President for Government Affairs. Before joining Public Knowledge, Lewis worked in the Federal Communications Commission Office of Legislative Affairs, including as its Deputy Director. He is a former U.S. Senate staffer and an experienced political organizer and advocate in both the nonprofit world and political campaigns from local to the presidential level.

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Beth Noveck
Director, The Governance Lab; Chief Innovation Officer, The State of New Jersey; Professor, NYU Tandon School

Beth Simone Noveck directs the Governance Lab (The GovLab) at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering where she is also a Professor in Technology, Culture, and Society and affiliated faculty at the Center for Urban Science and Progress. She is also a Fellow at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge. Noveck served in the White House as the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and director of the White House Open Government Initiative under President Obama.

Milo Medin
Vice President of Access Services, Google

Milo Medin has been part of the Internet development community for more than 25 years. He is currently the vice president of access services at Google, where he oversees a number of projects to improve access to the Internet, primarily focused on expanding the speed, robustness and pervasiveness of wireless networks. Medin sits on the FCC’s Technical Advisory Committee and Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. Since 2016, he has served on the Defense Innovation Board.

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Angela Siefer
Executive Director, National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA)

Angela Siefer has been working in digital inclusion since 1997. From physically setting up computer labs in underserved areas and managing local digital inclusion programs to consulting for the U.S. Department of Commerce and testifying before Congress, Siefer develops national strategies and solutions from the ground up. In 2015, she helped found the National Digital Inclusion Alliance,  a unified voice for home broadband access, public broadband access, personal devices and local technology training and support programs.

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Theresa Swinehart
Senior Vice President, Global Domains and Strategy, ICANN

As Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Swinehart oversees a global team responsible for a range of work relating to ICANN’s stakeholders and contracted parties, including policy implementation, review recommendations, and strategic initiatives. Swinehart also serves as co-deputy to ICANN’s President and CEO. She is a leading advocate for an open and secure Internet and an expert in global Internet governance and cooperation.

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John Windhausen
Executive Director, Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB)

John Windhausen, Jr., is the founder and Executive Director of the Schools, Health, & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, a non-profit, public interest group based in Washington DC. SHLB has over 230 members and promotes open, affordable, high-quality broadband services for anchor institutions and their communities. Windhausen previously was President of a telecommunications trade association and from 1987 to 1996, he served as staff counsel for the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.

About the Marconi Society

The Marconi Society envisions a world in which everyone can create opportunity through the benefits of connectivity. The organization celebrates, inspires, and connects individuals building tomorrow’s technologies in service of a digitally inclusive world.